Summer Lovin'

Chapter Thirteen

EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, Ryan, with Zoe beside him, pulled up to a beautiful house in a residential neighborhood. Each property on the street was perfectly kempt and manicured with swing sets in the yard.

"Patty did well for herself," Ryan said, glancing around at the nice neighborhood. "If Faith had gotten her life together…" He stopped and shook his head. "No sense going there. I can't change the past."

Zoe placed her hand on his shoulder and he appreciated her silent support. Last night's harsh words and frank discussion still hung between them, yet she reached out to him when he needed her most. That fact proved to him that their connection went further than any place she could possible run to.

He stopped the car in front of the address he'd gotten from Patty's mother, and together he and Zoe made their way up the flower-lined walk.

"So last time you spoke to Patty, she said she hadn't heard from Faith at all?" Zoe asked.

"Actually the P.I. I hired spoke to Patty. I left it to the professional to follow all leads. I was so emotionally vested, I figured he'd have more success."

Zoe nodded. "Okay, so with a little luck, it's your emotions that'll get Patty to open up now."

"I hope you're right." He rang the doorbell, which set off an interesting combination of chimes. Then they waited.

Soon the door opened and a familiar face appeared before him. His sister's friend looked older, but she was still an attractive brunette, who'd obviously outgrown the punk stage.

"Patty?"

She blinked, staring at him until he saw the recognition dawn in her eyes. "Ryan Baldwin?"

"It's me."

"Wow. It's good to see you!" She sounded genuine, but he also caught the wariness in her expression.

"Patty, this is a friend of mine, Zoe Costas." He gestured to Zoe. "Could we come in and talk to you? It's about Faith."

The other woman shook her head. "I don't know. It's been so long and I probably can't be of any help to you."

"Faith had a child," Zoe blurted out. "Can we please talk? It's important."

Patty's eyes grew wide. Obviously whatever she might know about Faith, she had had no idea about Sam.

"We won't keep you long," Ryan promised.

Patty stepped back and eased the door open wide. "Of course. Come in."

They followed her into a modern kitchen, with white cabinets and dark Formica countertops, and joined her at the table.

"You have to understand how hard this is. Faith was my best friend. My loyalty ran pretty deep." Patty intertwined her fingers as she tried to explain.

"Nobody would be upset if you knew something and didn't tell my parents," Ryan assured her. "At the time, who knows what, if anything, would have brought Faith home and who knows if my parents could have made it work a second time. I appreciate your loyalty to my sister. She didn't have much of that, so I'm not angry if you didn't tell my P.I. something, either."

Patty nodded, obviously grateful. "How did you find out Faith had a child?" she asked, sounding stunned.

"Eventually we got a lucky break that led to her ex-boyfriend who's serving a life sentence. Once I found out that Faith died, we were able to track her last whereabouts and it led to the fact that she had a child."

Patty shook her head. "I had no idea. I wasn't lying when I said I didn't hear from Faith after she ran away. Where is her daughter now?"

"Sam's been living with my family in New Jersey," Zoe explained.

"So what made you look me up now?" Patty asked.

While Zoe reached for the keys in her purse, Ryan pulled the old paperwork out of his pocket. "All this," he said. "We're hoping that somehow you were called before they dumped the contents of Faith's locker."

As Patty looked at the paper, her hands shook. "I was. And I picked up a stack of papers from the bus terminal years ago."

Hope flared in Ryan's chest. "What did you do with them?"

"Well I kept them, because I thought maybe Faith would come back one day." She blinked and he noticed her glassy eyes. "She didn't, of course."

"I'm guessing the papers are long gone by now?" Zoe asked.

"Actually…"

Patty stood and started walking, so Ryan rose and followed, Zoe behind him.

"I'm a pack rat," Patty explained as she headed into the hallway and paused at a closed door. "We've moved since I received the papers, but I kept all my old things in boxes. I never could bring myself to part with anything and since those items were my only link to Faith, I held on to them. I can't promise you that the papers are there, but if you don't mind dust, there's a good chance you'll find it if you dig around in the basement." She opened the door and flicked on an overhead light.

Ryan glanced at Zoe in her pink skirt and white halter top and asked, "Are you up for another dusty recovery mission?"

"I'm game if you are." In her eyes, he saw the same glimmer of hope and excitement that had flared to life inside him.

They shared this goal. He hoped in time they'd share many more. He didn't know what he'd find here, but he was glad she'd be with him no matter the outcome.

"Go right ahead," Patty told them.

He clasped her hand. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate this."

She waved away his words. "I wish I could have done more. I wish I had done more. Then maybe- "

"Don't go there," Ryan warned her. "I've learned it does no good. You were Faith's friend. The best kind of friend. Nobody could have asked any more of you."

Patty nodded. "Thanks, Ryan. You two stay as long as you need to."

"We appreciate that," Zoe said.

He led the way, helping Zoe down the long stairs in her heels and together they began to search through the large, unfinished basement. Hours later, they were only halfway through the unmarked, unlabeled boxes.

"Patty's not only a pack rat, she's an unorganized one," Zoe said, wiping her dirty hands against her light-colored skirt. "The bus depot was a breeze compared to this."

As he took in the dirt marks on her clothing and the smudges on her cheeks, she sneezed with gusto. "You're being a great sport."

She shrugged. "It's no big deal. I want to help you find whatever your sister left behind. Besides, the alternative is hanging out at the house with Grandma Vivian." Zoe gave an exaggerated shudder. "And I don't think she likes me very much."

Ryan shook his head. He needed to dispel that notion immediately. Although he hadn't thought his mother would take to Zoe, her turnaround where Faith and Sam were concerned gave him hope that she'd soften her ideas about what kind of woman made suitable marriage material for a Baldwin.

Personally, he didn't care what his mother thought, since his life was his own and he'd long since stopped doing what his parents desired. Yes, this woman could potentially cause a rift in the family, but then, so what? They weren't all that loving on the best of days.

Until very recently he'd feared the family shutting him out the way they had Faith, but he'd grown in the short time since meeting Zoe. He feared losing her much, much more.

"My mother doesn't know what to make of you. There's a difference between confusion and hate. If she can come to understand Sam, you'll be a piece of cake." He winked and, watching the blush suffuse her cheeks, he chuckled.

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Are you saying to know me is to love me?" she asked teasingly.

"You said it, I didn't."

Realizing her word choice, she glanced down and began rifling through her next box. Obviously love wasn't a term she wanted to discuss at the moment. He refused to take those concerns of hers too seriously right now. He'd already decided to keep things between them light and normal in the hopes she'd see how easy they were as a couple. So he began digging through his own treasure chest looking for something, anything, familiar.

Hours passed. His lower back hurt from bending, his shoulders ached from remaining hunched over and his neck was strained from tension and frustration. He was about ready to give up for good.

Zoe had already finished her share of boxes and now sat on the dirty floor leaning back against the cement wall, eyes closed. She appeared so fragile, a complete contrast to the strong woman he knew her to be. But seeing her this way made the ache inside him grow, made him want to take care of her.

He shook the fantasy out of his head and forced his gaze to the bottom of his last box. Unexpectedly, a sheath of papers caught his eye. At first glance they were just numbers on computer paper. Old computer paper, that looked as if it had come from a dot matrix printer, with the perforated edges still attached.

He pulled the papers out and, though the text and ink had faded, the words Baldwin's Department Stores headed the page.

His heart began to race. "Bingo!" he said, excitement rushing through him.

Zoe jumped to her feet and huddled beside him. "What'd you find?"

He sifted through the pages. Although Baldwin's was far more technologically up to date today, these were obviously old insurance claims.

"Old business statements from Baldwin's and…a letter or actually a diary of sorts. It's Faith's handwriting," he said, the familiar scrawl from the past making him feel as if his sister were here with him now. He shivered involuntarily.

"Are you okay?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah."

"Are you going to read it?"

A part of Ryan wanted to get the hell out of the dark, dank basement and read his sister's words in warm, familiar surroundings, and another part of him wanted right now to see what she'd left behind.

Curiosity won out. "Yeah I'm going to read it now. Want to see?" He wiped a hand over his forehead and lifted the old pages closer so he could see.

Zoe inched nearer and read along with him. His first glimpse was shocking and what he saw only became more horrifying as the meaning and intent in the letter grew clearer.

Nausea rose in his throat as Zoe stepped back and met his gaze. "It seems you were right," he said dully.

"Ryan, I'm so sorry."

"For forcing me to see the truth about my uncle? Someone had to shed some light for me." His laughter sounded harsh and gritty to his own ears.

"Could she have made things up?" Zoe asked of Faith.

"Don't try to protect my feelings now," he said wryly.

"It's possible, isn't it? Faith might have blamed your uncle for being thrown out of the house and left these notes, hoping your parents would find them when they found her."

He shook his head. "These sound more truthful than anything I've heard in quite a while."

He was beyond angry that his uncle would betray his sister. He was even more furious that the man would feign such ignorance over the years. Faith had left a thorough diary of her experiences and Uncle Russ's role in her running away. In fact, if his sister's words were to be believed, and Ryan did believe her, his uncle had every reason to want to get his hands on the keys. He'd want to see what Faith had left behind, if for no other reason than to cover his own ass.

"What's next?" Zoe asked.

"It's time I pay a visit to Uncle Russ."

She nodded. "Feel free to drop me off sat your parents' while you go."

Considering how much she disliked his family and their home, her offer meant a lot. "Actually since this revelation is a result of your persistence, you deserve a front-row seat at the confrontation."

"I never wanted to find anything incriminating on your uncle. For your sake, I hoped I was wrong," she said, her eyes huge, her voice imploring.

"But you aren't surprised."

She shook her head.

He rose and extended a hand, pulling her to her feet. They started for the stairs when suddenly he turned and she bumped into him. He grabbed her around the waist to steady her, then lowered his head and kissed her hard. Though he'd taken her by surprise, she responded. Her tongue tangled with his and as he pulled her closer, a soft moan escaped the back of her throat.

He'd needed this, needed her and the reassurance of something good and trustworthy in his life and she seemed to understand. He deepened the kiss, slanting his mouth first one way, then another, their mutual desire building with each passing second.

Slowly he pulled back with immense regret. He hadn't had his fill, not by a long shot, but he had gotten the fortification he needed for what lay ahead.

"What was that for?" she asked, her tongue dragging over her lower lip, taking in the moisture he'd created.

"It's been too long and I needed sustenance."

She laughed. "That's a unique excuse."

Despite it all, he grinned. "I didn't know I needed one."

"Well, I can't have you thinking I'm yours for the taking, now can I?" She patted his cheek and strode past him up the stairs.

He appreciated her sass and the way she didn't treat him with kid gloves or pity. Another reason this woman was a keeper, whether she knew it or not.

BALDWIN'S DEPARTMENT STORE was located in downtown Boston. With traffic and construction hampering them, the trip took over an hour. A silent hour that left Ryan alone with his thoughts and Zoe with hers.

Faith's words had been a bombshell, Zoe knew, one big enough that Ryan wanted her by his side when he confronted his uncle, a man he'd always trusted and loved like the kind of parent he should have had. The kind of parent he'd deserved, she thought.

Finding out his idol and mentor had feet of clay had obviously hurt him badly. Zoe saw the pain in his eyes, the disappointment in his expression. She'd even felt the desperation in his kiss. She couldn't deny him what he needed and she would be there to see him through this difficult time. Then she would put her plan in motion and begin the painful process of separation- Zoe and her family from Sam- and Zoe from Ryan.

She let Ryan walk ahead of her and, acting on a hunch, placed a quick call to Quinn. He'd been looking into the Baldwin family during the years right before and after Faith had run away and she wanted to know what he'd found out. Sure enough, the guy in custody in Boston who'd been following Sam was connected to the mob. The son of a man who'd been involved in the hijacking of the Baldwin's trucks years before. Zoe was certain Uncle Russ had hired the man to stalk Sam. Anger, fury and pain for Ryan all surged through her.

Uncle Russ had a lot of explaining to do and Zoe knew it would take all of her restraint to allow Ryan to deal with his uncle without her going after him on her own.

They entered Baldwin's from an underground parking structure and took the elevator to the main floor. Since they hadn't yet taken Sam on her promised shopping trip, this was Zoe's first excursion into one of their stores and she was impressed with the upscale establishment.

They made their way to a bank of private elevators that led to the office level, and once there, Ryan asked to see his uncle. He was granted immediate access and Zoe followed him down a long hall to a corner office. He knocked once and walked inside.

Since Russ's secretary had called ahead, the other man was standing when they entered. "Well this is a nice surprise." His gaze shifted from his nephew to Zoe. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

Zoe merely waited.

Ryan shut the door behind him. "It's time we talk."

She heard the strain in his voice and her heart went out to him, but all she could do was stand there and listen.

"I always have time for you, but we talk all the time. Why the visit to my office?" Russ glanced from the closed door to his nephew's severe expression and grew suddenly wary, shuffling papers on the desk for no apparent reason.

When Ryan didn't answer right away, Uncle Russ gestured to the chairs circling his desk. "Shall we sit?"

"I'd rather stand." Ryan rolled his shoulders and Zoe could only imagine the tension sitting upon them. "You know, when Zoe told me she thought you had an unusual interest in the keys around Sam's neck, I told her she was crazy."

Maybe it was Zoe's imagination, but she thought the older man lost some of his ruddy complexion, paling at Ryan's words as he eyed Zoe with barely concealed anger before shifting his gaze back to his nephew.

"Even when I agreed to look into the keys, I was humoring her. I figured best-case scenario, Sam finds out a little more about her mother, and worst case, I waste an afternoon. Not once did I believe you'd been involved in Faith's disappearance. Not you, the man who'd undertaken his own investigation to find her." His voice rose with all the hurt, anger and betrayal he must be feeling.

Zoe sensed the power behind Ryan's words. Her stomach jumped with equal doses of anticipation about what his uncle would admit to, and empathy for Ryan's obvious pain.

"And what exactly did you find?" Russ asked, suddenly more relaxed.

Zoe felt certain the man figured Ryan's fishing expedition had been as fruitless as his own. Ryan's initial indignation no longer threatened the older man, but he would soon find out he was deluded, she thought.

"The first thing I discovered was that Zoe's hunch about you was correct. You'd visited the bus station a few hours before we did. So I wondered, what in the world could you be looking for?"

"Ryan, surely you know I've always had your best interests at heart."

"I thought so. Up until our search led us to the contents of Faith's locker."

"That's impossible!" His uncle propelled himself forward, righteous certainty in his voice. "They told me there was nothing to be found."

"Unless you know the right questions to ask," Zoe said, unable to contain her pride in Ryan.

"It doesn't matter how we found Faith's things," Ryan said, stepping between them. "What matters is that she left behind a note documenting everything that led up to her running away."

Uncle Russ walked to his side of the desk and lowered himself into his large, leather chair. "You can't possibly believe the ravings of a seventeen-year-old drug addict." That he was no longer eye to eye with Ryan, but gripping the armrests hard, gave away the measure of his fear.

"You wouldn't look so worried right now unless you knew for sure Faith's words were more than ravings."

"That's nonsense," his uncle said in return.

A muscle ticked in Ryan's jaw. "Still in denial?"

Tension radiated between the men and she sensed Ryan's disappointment in the uncle he'd idolized throughout his life. Even cornered, he wasn't man enough to own up to his actions.

She had to clench her fists in order to prevent herself from calming Ryan down. He needed to do this and she needed to let him.

"So tell me just what it is you think you know," Russ said dismissively, speaking to Ryan as if he was nothing more important than an annoying little boy.

A pathetic old man's last bid to dominate the nephew he claimed to love, Zoe thought. But she knew Russ's attempt to cause Ryan to back down was doomed to failure.

"What do I know?" Ryan mimicked, then stormed across the room and braced both arms on the desk. In mood and in action, he took charge. "Dad already mentioned the mob-related truck hijackings that took place during the years Faith was most troubled. Thanks to her letters, I know you were involved with organized crime. That you gave them Baldwin's trucking schedules." His voice was filled with disdain. "And I know that select vehicles with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of electronics were hijacked."

"Coincidence."

"Bullshit," Ryan countered. "Because I also know you'd increased the insurance appraisal and made yourself a hefty sum of money without revealing that to my father. And I'm certain the mob sold the goods they stole and made a bundle. It was the perfect scam until Faith found out and confronted you, so you needed to get her out of the way."

"It sounds like a work of fiction." But Russ's eyes darted from side to side, his panic obvious.

And Zoe clung to every word. Though she'd thought Russ had an unusual interest in the keys, in her wildest dreams, she'd never imagined Russ was involved in something like this.

"By the way, I also know that it wasn't Faith's choice to run away. You gave her money and told her to take a hike because everyone at home would be better off with her gone and nobody would miss her once she disappeared."

Zoe winced as Ryan revealed the most painful betrayal of all.

Ryan's throat hurt from hurling the truth at his uncle without letting his anger overwhelm him completely. His heart ached with the knowledge that the one man he'd trusted had let him down in this way. The only thing keeping him together right now was Zoe, who stepped up and silently clasped her hand inside his.

"You must be taking Faith's words out of context," Russ said, his voice shaking, his fear real.

But not as real as his sister's must have been, Ryan thought. "How could you?" he asked barely concealing his disdain.

Russ's eyes suddenly blazed with emotion. "How could I? I'll tell you how. I was Faith's only ally in that house, just like I've been yours. I was the one who comforted her when her parents yelled and passed judgment. I bailed her out of trouble more times than your family knows about. Especially that last time."

Ryan's legs shook and he lowered himself into the nearest chair. Zoe remained behind him, her hand on his shoulder and he appreciated her steady support. "What are you talking about?" Because for all his sister had revealed in her letter, he'd sensed there was much she hadn't said.

And unfortunately, Uncle Russ was the only one who could fill in the blanks. It was up to Ryan to decide whether or not to believe him.

His uncle rose and paced the small area behind his desk. Sun shone in from the plate-glass window behind him, but Ryan felt as if the sky were full of black clouds.

"Your sister had been doing drugs for years," Uncle Russ began. "I didn't know where she got them and I didn't ask. I tried to get her into treatment and I paid for shrinks your parents didn't know about, but the bottom line was, Faith was messed up and she still had to go home to that dysfunctional house every night. Therapy wasn't working. So when she came to me that last time, I had no choice."

"But to throw her out?" Ryan asked, unable to contain his sarcasm.

Zoe's hand squeezed his shoulder tighter.

"To bail her out and send her away." Russ shook his head, the bachelor looking older than his years for the first time in Ryan's memory.

But Ryan wasn't ready to believe that easily. He swallowed hard. "What do you mean?"

"Your sister ran out of money to support her habit. Your parents weren't giving her cash and I sure wasn't helping her kill herself. We all thought she'd give in and let herself be helped. But she began to borrow money from a friend at school. The friend turned out to be connected and when Faith couldn't pay him back, he threatened her. And she came to me."

Ryan rubbed his hand over his burning eyes. He refused to be conned, but so far the story made sense. "Go on."

"I met with this friend who brought his boss. They were only too willing to let me take on her debt. In fact they'd had it planned all along, using your sister's addiction to further their bottom line. Threatening Faith was never about the couple of hundred dollars she owed. They wanted a cut of Baldwin's profits. And they wouldn't leave her be until they got it."

His voice cracked and his eyes glazed over as he remembered. "They promised the truck hijacking would be a one-time thing. If I turned over the trucking schedule, they'd pick the shipment. They'd let me know with plenty of time to up the insurance so I could make some money off it too." He looked down, shame briefly clouding his expression. "But that was peanuts in comparison to their take when they sold the goods on the street."

Ryan's head began to pound, but he forced himself to focus on what was most important. "Why did you pay Faith to leave?"

Uncle Russ slammed his hand on the desk, making Ryan flinch.

"You're a smart man, Ryan. Use your brain. Faith had a drug habit. She wasn't getting better. Hell, she just didn't care. Living at home, she was destined to repeat the cycle and I was afraid Baldwin's would be in bed with the mob forever, to use a cliché. But I hoped that if she got away from the situation that caused her to turn to drugs in the first place, maybe she'd get better."

"That's the most naive thing I've ever heard," Ryan muttered.

"And stupid. But this was seventeen years ago. What did I know about addiction? As the only person who was thinking clearly about the business and the family, I had to consider the possibility that Faith was on such a destructive path, eventually she'd cause someone in the family to get hurt. We were already involved with the mob. What was next?" He glanced at Ryan, his eyes imploring. "You have to believe me. At the time I thought I had no choice."

Considering what a shock all this was, and knowing his uncle had made a profit off the scheme, at the moment Ryan wasn't sure what to believe. "Yet you lied and told us all that Faith stole money from you to run away."

"That wasn't far from the truth. She stole the key to my briefcase along with false insurance papers documenting a shipment worth more than the actual goods."

Ryan narrowed his gaze, confused. "You'd been helping her. Why would she turn on you before leaving?"

Russ spread his hands wide. "She was a drug addict, Ryan. Who knows why she did what she did?"

"Why did you continue the scam over the years?" Ryan asked.

Russ frowned. "Who says I did?"

"You did. Through your actions." Though Ryan laughed, he recognized the hollowness in the sound. "If you'd done it once to help Faith, you wouldn't have been in a panic when you saw Sam's key. Your actions were screwed-up, but sort of justifiable and eventually forgivable."

"I don't see you believing in me at the moment," his uncle said, his voice laced with bitterness.

"That's because Faith's letter indicated you made money off the scheme more than that one time. It seems she kept those papers in the locker for a year or so, adding to them on occasion."

His uncle opened his mouth, closed it again, then finally said, "How the hell would she have known?"

"Because like you said, she was a drug addict. She needed drugs after she ran away and turned to her 'friend' to supply her before she finally took off for New York. He must have filled her in."

"Good Lord." Uncle Russ turned toward the window.

"Yeah," Ryan muttered. "So what the hell was going on?"

Russ faced them again. "It was supposed to be one time. Then a year later, they called on me again. Between their veiled threats to reveal my insurance scam and the fact that the extra money in my pocket helped my lifestyle- "

"You're hardly hurting for cash from the business," Ryan pointed out.

"And neither is your father or brother and they don't work nearly as hard as I do. After a while, it seemed like I wasn't getting what I deserved from Baldwin's," he admitted. "Who was it hurting?"

"How about the small-business owner who sees insurance rates skyrocket year after year?" Zoe said, making her presence known.

Not that Ryan had forgotten.

Uncle Russ scowled, but the slight incline of his head acknowledged her point. "I heard from your sister from time to time."

"What?" Ryan asked in shock.

"She'd call collect or drop me a note. She'd remind me of what she knew and I lived in abject fear of her revealing all. But then after a while the threats stopped. It seemed as if she was cleaning up her act and I was able to justify sending her away. But then it was silent for too long. I was petrified of her going back on drugs, or exposing me. That's when I began my investigation into her whereabouts."

Ryan's head pounded and he braced himself for his uncle's next admission.

"I found out she'd died in a drug dispute," he said, his voice cracking.

"You kept that from my parents? From me? You let me investigate and search and hope?"

Russ nodded. "Please hear me out. When I first found out, the guilt nearly killed me. I blamed myself and I stopped my part in bilking the insurance company. It helped that the feds were cracking down and the guys I dealt with wanted to lay low and focus on other things."

"And with Faith gone, so was the threat of discovery," Ryan said.

Russ nodded. "I stayed clean and focused on you, but the guilt never went away. Guilt over sending her away, over her death, over keeping the news from you, but I couldn't see what good it would do to tell you. I couldn't hurt you that way."

"Or deal with my reaction to your role in it."

Russ hung his head. "That, too."

"But then I started investigating on my own. With only partial information to go on, since you withheld the important things, like my sister's death," Ryan said with contempt.

"Guilty as charged," Uncle Russ admitted dully.

Ryan leaned back in the chair, his body heavy with the weight of everything he'd just heard.

"How did you feel when Ryan found out something you hadn't? When he found Sam?" Zoe's voice startled Ryan and he glanced her way. She was face-to-face with his uncle.

Uncle Russ merely shook his head and Zoe continued. "I can answer that. You got nervous that maybe she knew something or had something that could implicate you, isn't that right?"

Ryan's gaze shot back to his uncle. "Is she right?"

Uncle Russ nodded and nausea churned in Ryan's gut. He'd had enough revelations today to last a lifetime, but Zoe obviously wasn't finished.

"You were so nervous this child of Faith's might know something or have something of her mother's that you hired someone to break into my family's home and tear the place apart, starting with Sam's room," she said, accusing him of something that had never even crossed Ryan's mind. While he'd been consumed with the past, Zoe had been focused on the present.

"She's right about this, too, isn't she?" Ryan said, knowing the answer before he'd asked the question.

Defeated, Russ merely nodded. "But how did you know?"

"The guy's in jail in Boston and we found out he has a mob connection to the same people involved in the truck robberies. I also had my brother-in-law run a check on you during Faith's troubled years." She shot Ryan a regretful glance, but he wasn't about to be angry at her.

"Do you know how badly I wanted to be wrong?" she asked Russ. "Ryan loves you. He believed in you. I didn't want to think that you were capable of something so low," Zoe said, her anger and fury evident in the clench of her fists and the barely controlled tone of her voice. "Do you realize you scared a fourteen-year-old girl half to death and you violated my parents' home, all to save your sorry- " She stepped forward.

Ryan rose and grabbed her by the waist to prevent her from going after his uncle. Her Mediterranean blood was fired up and though he'd like nothing better than to let her take care of the man, he was compelled to protect her from her own anger.

When her breathing slowed and he knew she'd calmed down, he released her, holding her hand to be sure.

"You also pretended to extend an overture to Sam just so you could get your hands on her keys," Zoe said in disbelief. "She's a child and you violated her trust in the worst way. But then you'd already done the same thing to her mother, so why should Sam get in your way?"

With each word, with each revelation, Ryan's stomach rolled in sick disbelief. "I don't know who you are," he said, glancing at his uncle.

"Sometimes I don't know the answer to that, either," Russ said.

Zoe's hand still in his, Ryan pulled her toward the door.

"Ryan," his uncle called to him.

Ryan paused.

"I've always loved you- you and Faith," Russ told him. "And I pray that someday when you've had time to think this over, you'll see through my weakness and stupidity and realize that."

Unable to see anything at the moment, Ryan strode through the door with Zoe without looking back.